Mole Valley District Council implements Asset4000 from Real Asset Management to manage £70m of assets

Local authority selects Asset4000 to achieve IFRS/SORP compliance and ensure resilience within the asset register

Mole Valley District Council, a Surrey local authority covering the towns of Dorking and Leatherhead has selected Asset4000 to manage over £70 million worth of assets. The RAM solution provides the Council with a centralised asset register, allowing it to spread ownership and knowledge of the data across the finance team, as well as ensuring the detailed level of finance, lease and component accounting required to comply with the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for local authority accounting.

Mole Valley District Council supplies local authority services including leisure, waste collection and recycling, benefits, environmental health, planning, building control and land charges, with its asset base consisting primarily of freehold properties as well as vehicle and equipment assets contained within contractual embedded leases with external service providers such as Biffa, Veolia, Burelys and Grundons.

Commenting on the asset management system in place prior to the purchase, Paul Drury, Mole Valley's Financial Services Manager states, "We had no bespoke system as such and used spreadsheets for depreciation accounting. This was fine for getting us through the audit, but the knowledge rested with one staff member. From a business continuity perspective, we wanted to break out expertise from that one individual and share it amongst a number of
staff, using a more stable platform than a spreadsheet."

Drury continues, "With Asset4000, we are able to ensure more resilience in the data, and promote increased ownership of the asset register amongst staff." Compliance with mandatory accounting legislation such as IFRS/SORP is also a key concern for Mole Valley District Council. Drury comments, "We have to follow SORP as prescribed by CIPFA in relation to Local Authority accounting, with the deadline for component level accounting and an IFRS compliant balance sheet approaching in April 2010. RAM is instrumental in helping us achieve the level of detail required to meet the terms of this legislation."

Drury adds, "RAM was confident to state upfront that its software was SORP compliant. Other solutions investigated gave patchy answers and it was imperative that we achieve compliance. RAM's reputation also spoke for itself. I have prior experience working with RAM from another authority, and the software's reputation is based on delivering results backed up with solid references."

As well as building resilience into the asset register data, Asset4000 gives a high level of centralised control and will also produce a journal to be imported into the Council's iSoft/Integra accounting system, improving transparency, spreading data knowledge efficiently and saving administration time. Drury concludes, "Asset4000 will definitely save time for Mole Valley District Council compared to using spreadsheets, but for us the benefits in terms of sharing knowledge, data resilience and the assurance of compliance to SORP are immeasurable."